THE RIGHT TO THE CITY AT THE COP 30 VENUE: BETWEEN THE RHETORIC AND PRACTICE OF URBAN SUSTAINABILITY IN BELÉM DO PARÁ

Abstract

The choice of Belém as the host of COP 30 in 2025 places the Amazonian city within debates on sustainability and climate change. Recent studies indicate that mega-events can be announced or seen as catalysts for urban reconfigurations, but they can also reinforce socio-spatial inequalities under the narrative of sustainability. In the Amazon, such processes become even more critical, given the historical fragility of urban planning and the invisibility of structural problems, such as precarious sanitation and socio-environmental segregation. Faced with this scenario, the research seeks to answer the following question: In what way can holding COP 30 in Belém serve to overcome the invisibility of historical urban problems in the capital of Pará, allowing the transition from mere sustainability rhetoric to state actions and investments that promote the Right to the City? The general objective is to understand how COP 30, as a climate mega-event, can unveil historical urban problems, inducing the transition from sustainability rhetoric to the effective construction of a fairer urban environment, from the perspective of the Right to the City. Specifically, it seeks to: (i) examine how the notion of the Right to the City can be used to understand the urban phenomenon, including in the Brazilian Amazonian reality; (ii) critically analyze how sustainability rhetoric can forge a development model that deepens socio-spatial inequalities in the urban environment; and (iii) compare interventions/investments linked to COP 30 with structural problems that hinder the realization of a fairer urban environment, in line with the Right to the City. The research is characterized as qualitative, of a descriptive-analytical nature, structured by hypothetical-deductive reasoning and organized into three complementary methodological strategies: (i) systematic literature review; (ii) documentary analysis; and (iii) multiple case study. The results indicate that urban interventions associated with COP 30 reinforce processes of socio-spatial exclusion, while simultaneously highlighting the historical precariousness of Belém's urban infrastructure. It is concluded that the mega-event constitutes an opportunity to redirect public investments towards the effective realization of the Right to the City, but it can also deepen historical inequalities if the logic of the urban showcase prevails.